Over the last few years, I’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy lots of trips and have visited several new countries each year. Travelling became an important part of my life and I enjoyed shifting the focus of this blog to reflect that.
But this year, travel hasn’t been on the agenda much at all.
So far, I’ve spent the weekend in Amsterdam, one in Krakow and a few days in a cabin in Northumberland. Nothing else is booked; I have no other plans.
Travel has fallen down my list of priorities.
I haven’t even blogged about my last few trips.
This year has been all about work, with the focus split between my day job and pushing the crowdfunding campaign for my novel. Mentally, it’s been pretty all-consuming and I haven’t had the energy for much else, not even researching and planning trips.
Sad face.
I’m still due a couple of weeks leave from my job, so I am hoping to book at least one short break before the end of 2018.
If you’d told me a year ago that my focus on travel would have changed, I’d have been horrified. But I’ve actually quite enjoyed being focused on work. For once, I have a job that I (mostly) enjoy and a book that will hopefully be published soon.
If that means spending less time and money on travelling for a while, then I’m okay with that.
Much as I would love to have it all, I’ve got to think about myself and my energy levels too. While trips and holidays are amazing, they can be tiring too, especially when trying to fit a lot of exploring into a few short days, with no rest before it’s back to the day job.
And spending some of my holiday time relaxing and enjoying the moment, without worrying about creating blog content, has been worth it.